KATHY'S PAGE II:
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AFTER. In just two cuts, Kathy has her lava planting back to manageable size. Kathy has always had great growth as she uses "enriched water" each time she waters. This is a proven technique used by many of our more successful customers and is highly recommended. Her plant has one heavy long root that lengthens and curls around the bottom of the wood bowl. |
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WOW Kathy, you're really making it look easy! You've come a long way
from the first note I got back in 2002 and I thank you for sharing the three
times that you've pruned this tree. I generally advise allowing a new
branch to grow out 5 to 7 new leaves before pruning back to 1 or 2 leaves.
This results in 3 to 5 leaf cuttings that can be rooted to start new
plants. But if pruned more often when there are about 3-4 new leaves,
you'll be trimming more often before the leaves get large and this will result
in a more compact plant, although cuttings may be too small to root. Kathy takes GREAT photos and I thought everyone would enjoy seeing how this tree has evolved in the past four years. |
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When Kathy first wrote, she set
as her training goal to maintain the same size and she's done so!
Congratulations Kathy! You've again done a great job of figuring out
what needed to be done and sharing it with the website readers. Kathy
submitted the eight photos that were of ideal size and clearly told the
story! THANK YOU! My own understanding greatly increased after I began teaching Bonsai Evening Adult Education Classes at Aiea High School in Honolulu in 1966. But back then, my students had a very difficult time obtaining appropriate plants to use in the workshops. Fuku-Bonsai initially began as a part-time backyard nursery specifically to supply prepared bonsai stock for beginner bonsai classes. A few years ago we developed a "Premium Keiki Bonsai Workshop Package" and this continues to be an ideal package. It is large enough with established roots protected within a rock planting so there's an extremely high success rate. But it's a bet costly due to the amount of work to put together the components including premium stock that is already rock-planted and 4 to 7 years in training. Fuku-Bonsai is currently developing an "Introductory Bonsai Workshop Package" that will be ideal for individual's first hands-on bonsai workshop. These will be available to individuals as well as those teaching beginner bonsai classes. By bulk-packaging the components, we will be able to supply instructors or school districts at attractive prices. Please write for more information if interested. I'll be asking Kathy and a few other correspondents to field test, evaluate and share a critique and photo report. ~~~David ____________________________________________________________________________ In May of 2007, Kathy was asked to field-test the new Introductory Workshop Package and to ask two of her friends to also try them. She did, they did, and the great photo reports are titled: Kathy Alameida & Introductory Workshop Packages!
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Earlier this year I got an email from
Kathy that they would be visiting the Big Island and we were
delighted when they arrived. After a quick tour I got to
learn more from her. Kathy just has a great sense of the
amount of water that the plant needs and she was amongst the
first to suggest that when the plants are growing well, that the
root tips are fleshy and white. When the plant is being
over-watered, roots are black and rotting.
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